Trying to be vegan and delicious!

Menu

Fruitcake is Awesome

I know, lots of people hate fruitcake. If you’re that type of person, give me two minutes to try to convince you. You’re probably used to some kind of brick-like item, filled with tough raisins, gummy coloured bits of questionable origin, and bitter walnuts.

This is where my fruitcake defies that stereotype. I do add raisins, candied fruit, and walnuts, but it’s a boozy, moist confection. It contains a majority of dried fruits that actually resemble their natural form. There are three types of nuts and just enough candied cherries to make it look festive.

This is great made several weeks ahead and practically marinated in brandy. It is equally delicious made at least a week in advance and allowed to “settle” in the refrigerator – this gives it time for the moisture from alcohol-soaked fruit to penetrate the rest of the cake.

A note about fruit choice: all of the fruit proportions are relatively flexible. Hate apricots? Use dried pineapple instead. Dried tropical fruits unavailable or too expensive? Use more dried cranberries and dates. Hate non-organic or artificially coloured fruits? Use dried natural ones exclusively. Part of the reason it has taken me years to blog this, after perfecting it in 2012, is that I kept forgetting to write down how much of what I used, so that you’d have guidelines to work from. The combination of fruits I have included here are what I prefer, but as long as they equal the same total volume of fruit, experiment away! All measurements of larger fruits are after they have been chopped and packed into a measuring cup.

Add syrup or molasses, orange juice and zest, and lemon juice and zest, and beat again until mixed in.

Min in 1/3 of the flour mixture, then add half of the brandy.

Repeat adding in 1/3 of the flour followed by the remaining brandy.

Add in the last of the flour and stir until it is relatively consistent.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to stir a few times, making sure any ingredients on the bottom have been mixed in well.

Add half of the fruit mixture to the batter and stir by hand until partially incorporated.

If you have a large enough stand mixer bowl, add the rest of the fruit and finish stirring it in by hand.

If your mixer bowl is too small, add the batter-fruit mix to the bowl remaining fruit and stir well.

Prepare the pans

Set oven to 300F with a rack in the middle of the oven. Don’t bother doing this earlier, as from my experience the first steps will take way longer than the five minutes needed to preheat an oven.

Coat all loaf pans (even non-stick!) with cooking spray.

Line all pans with parchment paper. This seems like overkill, but $30 worth of fruitcake stuck to a pan two hours from now won’t feel like a joke).

Tear off a sheet of tinfoil for every pan you plan to use.

Fill each loaf pan 1/2 to 2/3 full maximum. If you fill the pans more than 2/3, you WILL have fruitcake batter dripping onto the bottom of your oven.

Evenly distribute the four loaves on the middle rack of the oven and place a sheet of tinfoil over each one. This prevents the tops from singeing.

Every hour, shuffle the arrangement of the loaves so that no loaf spends the entire time in the same spot in the oven.

Bake for 2 1/4 to 3 hours. After 2 1/4 hours, start checking the cakes for doneness. The middle should still be slightly soft, but passes a toothpick test. The edges should not be burnt!

Remove to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.

Store and marinate

Remove the cakes from the plans. Running around the edge of the cake with a knife can help. If a chunk of cake breaks off, you can stick it back where it came from.

Store cakes in a tightly sealed freezer bag for two weeks at room temperature, or up to three months in a refrigerator.

At least once a week, brush cake with a generous amount of brandy to increase deliciousness.

Try to flip cake upside down every other time you add brandy, to improve liquor penetration.

Even if you don’t like fruitcake, why don’t you listen to a hilarious story about it. I can’t link to it, but if you have iTunes, Look up Vinyl Cafe, and the Episode “Rashida, Amir, and the great gift-giving.” You’ll be thankful that you don’t have to fight a squirrel for this fruitcake!